HUB PIONEERS! *Digital diplomacy in action...! What is digital diplomacy? Digital diplomacy is solving foreign policy problems using the internet.
What does that mean? Its conventional diplomacy through a different medium. Through the web we can listen, publish, engage and evaluate in new and interesting ways & communicate directly with civil society as well as governments and influential individuals...
*Digital diplomacy, a tool of oft power & for a new face of international relations.

lundi 4 février 2013

Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, speaks to NDTV on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum 2013 about the recovery in global, US and European economies.

"One thing that I have been continually struck-by during my three years in Kuwait is the increasing ubiquity of the Smartphone. Indeed, someone told me recently that Kuwait has the highest level of Smartphone usage per capita anywhere in the world. A fact I can well believe as I watch my media-savvy Kuwaiti friends at their Diwaniyyas.

And of course the ubiquity of the technology goes hand-in-hand with the ubiquity of social media. Twitter in Kuwait is not a craze, it is part of the political landscape. Kuwaiti MPs have more followers on Twitter than their British equivalents, despite the fact that there are sixty times as many Brits as there are Kuwaitis. Kuwait’s accomplished and knowledgeable Twitterati are at the leading edge of every new story.

Such a change doubtlessly has a massive impact. Instinctively, for example, it seems clear that social media offers huge opportunities for freedom of expression. Individuals are able to see their thoughts traverse the globe in an instant; news – and its interpretation – is not automatically dependent on the filtering process of the media, or of government.

Injustice, when it happens, can easily have light shone upon it. Contrast the international outrage, from ordinary people and their governments, over the barbarity in Syria today, with the quiescence in 1982 when Hafez al-Assad flattened the city of Hama. There was no YouTube video of that bloodbath.

But with rights come responsibilities. Unchecked, social media can also allow disinformation, slander, racism, incitement to hatred, victimisation and a catalogue of ills, some – obviously – more serious than others. We are struggling with this issue in the UK.

Our Crown Prosecution Service recently published a new set of guidelines on what, in the UK context, was required for the law to be broken on social media. The simple fact is that what is said on social media, merely by dint of the forum in which the view was aired, should not be a free pass to immunity.

In my view, if something incites violence or racism, then it should be prosecuted, regardless of whether it is said in front of physical people or their virtual avatars.

But drawing this line is no easy matter. Going too far one way allows space for hatred and violence and undermines social cohesion; going too far the other impinges on fundamental human rights. It is therefore a controversial and contested subject in the UK, with various politicians, pressure groups, civil society organisations and journalists weighing in on different sides of the debate.

That is why the Embassy has worked with the Euro-Gulf research unit at Kuwait University to organise a seminar on Monday February 4, bringing together British and Kuwaiti experts to discuss precisely these issues – an academic session looking at these principles and the issues their intersection throws up is far preferable to having them buried amidst the tumult of the daily political cut and thrust.

The hashtag for the seminar is #Q8_expression and all are welcome to participate, whether in cyberspace or in person at KU. Hopefully, as befits this subject, the debates in the hall and more widely will feed of each other.

It promises to be an interesting discussion, and I’ll certainly be glued to my Smartphone to watch how it unfolds…"

*Digital Diplomacy Series with Alec Ross – Embassy of Italy in Washington DC*

A conversation with author Alec Ross on his new book ‘The Industries of the Future’
Moderated by:
Bay Fang
Managing Director, Radio Free Asia,
and Senior Fellow, New America Foundation.
Tuesday, April 12, 2016

*Can Social Media Change the Face of Diplomacy?*

July 30 (Bloomberg) –- Columbia University Senior Fellow Alec Ross discusses how social media has helped drive the public conversation and engage people in foreign affairs. He speaks on ‘Market Makers.” (Source: Bloomberg)

*TWITTER*

*Angel GURRIA, SG de l'OCDE & Morgane BRAVO*

*Foreign Press Center Briefing on "Digital Diplomacy: Making Foreign Policy Less Foreign" :
Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Evan Ryan,
Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Public Affairs Douglas Frantz, and Coordinator for International Information Programs Macon Phillips discuss "Digital Diplomacy: Making Foreign Policy Less Foreign" at the Foreign Press Center in New York, NY on February 18, 2014, moderated by Emily Parker, author and senior fellow at the New America Foundation. A transcript can be found at http://fpc.state.gov/221808.htm.
19 févr. 2014
http://diplomacydigital.blogspot.fr/2014/03/foreign-press-center-briefing-on_17.html